Sunday, August 19, 2012

The HS Reunion Metaphor

Is it just me, or does it seem to you that the high school reunion experience is just pregnant with metaphor for what we long for in life? Last Saturday night, we remembered the uniqueness of the history that only we share....And as we looked around the room, we understood that no other friends, relatives, even spouses can be in this club with us. On the other hand, the longings we've pursued together are common to everybody we know.

In 1972 we left in search for "home", didn't we? - Our true-north...the place of our destiny, a real place of our own, designed where only we could fit and hopefully be comfortable.....And if Athens, TN in 1972 was the home you came looking for on reunion night, you were probably sorely disappointed. Because the town seemed smaller, the old school buidling and "The Huddle" couldn't even be found...And who were all those old, wrinkled, bald and frumpy people who used to be your friends? We set-out longing for home 40 years ago...But does it feel like we've found it?

And in 1972, we didn't want things to end, did we? Do you still remember the yearbook picture of Denise Brock in her cap and gown on graduation day, crying? Shouldn't the good times last forever? Shouldn't we all last forever? We were longing for things that don't end. Yet they're still ending.

We might not have had much in the way of social media in 1972, but did we ever enjoy our "connectedness"!...We hated parting, so we immediately went out seeking relationships that would last, in our own "flower-child" kind of way...Oh how we've longed for relationship, and oh how we've all won and lost in that quest.

But maybe our greatest longing when we left in the Spring of '72 was the longing to become something better....Is it not true that we left there feeling that we were made for much more than this? And it drove us to improve our lives. And when we saw each other again last week we took personal stock, and we asked ourselves once more if we've become all that we set out to be.

We left MCHS in 1972 restless and unsettled....And unfairly the journey that followed has thrown us some unsettling curves as well. If you find yourself aching at the point of your longings would you consider something? Would you consider this, now in the perspective that 40 more years can give you? Would you consider the possibility that you may have been purposefully and very lovingly created with these longings so that they will one day lead you to the only One who can ultimately satisfy them?

Home, time that remains, relationship that doesn't fail, and the Way to finally attain that elusive state of "betterness"....The whole package offered to us freely, yet given at great cost.

Maybe you're at a point of working through issues of unresolved longings. I'd be honored to talk with you as your fellow journey-mate at the 40 year mark. Drop a note at andersondennis@bellsouth.net

1 comment:

Good stuff Denise! Thanks for sharing and being the MC for our reunion! Great job and look forward to more gatherings. I hope that the soon coming 'deceptions' of this world will allow us to be part of the 'very elect' that will see through these and allow the 'One' to whom you refer have His way in our lives. All the best!